Nintendo Wins Lawsuit Against Tokyo's Totally Unofficial Mario Kart

Today, Tokyo District Court ruled against MariCar, the unofficially real-life Mario Kart, ordering the company to cease lending out Nintendo-themed cosplay and cough up ten million yen in damages.

That’s nearly £68,000.

Tokyo District Court ordered Mari Mobility Dev., previously MariCar, to pay ¥10 million in compensation and stop using Nintendo-related outfit. The street go-cart company operates services in Japan, and Nintendo was complaining it was damaging its "Mario Kart" franchise.

Nintendo filed suit against MariCar, now known as MariMobility, early last year for intellectual property violation. The MariCar tours are incredibly popular with tourists, ranking high on Trip Advisor.

But besides the obvious copyright issues, there have been other problems, including incidents of tourists crashing MariCar go-karts.